"From the period when the new and alarming æra of the French Revolution broke in upon the world, and the doctrines which it ufhered into light lad hold of the minds of men, I found that the grounds upon which the queftion refted were ef fentially and fundamentally altered. Whatever may have been my former opinion, am I to be told that I am inconfiftent if I feel that it is better to forego the advantage which any alteration may be calculated to produce, rather than afford an inlet to principles with which no compromise can be made, rather than hazard the utter annihilation of a fyftem under which this country has flourished in its profperity, by which it has been fupported in its adverfity, and by the energy and vigour of which it has been enabled to recover from the difficulties and diftreffes with which it has had to contend. The Learned Gentleman affumed that it was neceffary to adopt the moderate Reform propofed, in order to feparate thofe whom fuch a plan would fatisfy from those who would be fatisfied with none; but who, I contend, by means of this, would only labour to attain the complete object of their wishes in the annihilation of the Conftitution. Thofe men who treat Parliament as ufurpation and Monarchy as an invafion of the Rights of Man, would not receive that Reform which was not the recognition of their right, and which they would confider as vitiated if conveyed in any other shape. Though fuch men had availed themselves of the aid of thofe who fupported Parliamentary Reform on other grounds, would they be contented with this fpecies of Reform as an ultimate object? But does the Honourable and Learned Gentlemen mean to affume that those who are the friends of moderate Reform, and I know not how such a wish has been expreffed at all, must remain confounded with those whom no Reform will fatisfy, unlefs fome measure like the prefent is adopted? Where has fuch a wifh for moderate Reform been expreffed? If those who are even thought to entertain fentiments favourable to that caufe have cherifhed them in filence, if they have abftained from preffing them at a moment when they would have ferved only to promote the views of those who wifhed to annihilate, not to Reform, is it to be apprehended that any ill effects will enfue, unless you adopt fome expedient to diftinguilh the moderate Reformer from the defperate foe? This, however, is the main argument of the Learned Gentleman, which he has put into a thousand different fhapes. I do not believe, however, that the temper of moderate Reformers will lead them to make a common caufe with the irreconcileable enemies of the Conftitution. If there are really many who may be ranked as moderate Reformers, it is at leaft probable that they feel the force of the danger which I have ftated, that they think

it wiser to check their wishes than to risk the inlet of Jacobine principles, and the imprudence of affording to the enemies of the Conftitution the means of accomplishing its deftruction.

"Has there been, however, any decifive manifestation of their defires, or is there reafon to believe, that disappointed in their wishes, they will be immediately driven beyond the bounds. of duty to the Conftitution? If there is no fecurity that those whose views have already pointed beyond Reform will be recalled to better fentiments, if there are even certain grounds to believe that they will merely employ any Reform that may be introduced as a step towards realizing their own fyftem, upon what pretence can the prefent measure be held out as calculated to reconcile those men to the Conftitution? From the conduct of Gentlemen on the other fide, it is obvious that they do not conceive any decifive manifeftation of the wishes of the people for a moderate Reform being now introduced to have taken place. My reafon for fuch an opinion is this, we have feen that the Gentlemen in Oppofition have not been deficient in their efforts to procure every expreffion of the public concurrence in the objects for which they have contended. Yet it is not a little extraordinary, that a fubject fo highly momentous in its various relations, and which involves no lefs a confideration, than a more adequate reprefentation of the whole body of the people of Great Britain, fhould not have been noticed or recommended by the people themselves who were so very materially interested in it. It is hardly to be fuppofed, that those indefatigable and laborious applications which have produced Addreffes from different parts of the country for the removal of his Majefty's Minifters, have not been exerted with equal vigour and pertinacity for the accomplishment of a Parliamentary Reform; admitted as it is by thofe Gentlemen themselves to be a confideration of fuperior magnitude. Since, therefore, in all the Addresses which had been agreed to for the difmiffal of Minifters, no mention whatever has been made on the subject of Reform in Reprefentation, I truft it will at least be allowed, there is very strong prefumption that there did not exist in the public mind a defire for effecting that measure. The people have expreffed their fentiments on many other public points of importance; and as it is plainly to be inferred that they must have been folicited to manifeft their opinion on the question then before the Houfe, it is of courfe to be concluded, that the Gentlemen oppofite to me have not been fuccefsful enough to find a large portion of the community ready to come forward and fupport the queftion of Parliamentary Reform on the principles laid down by thofe who propofed it this night. It does not appear then that there is any call upon the House to adopt a mea

fure

fure which, fo far from being neceflary to fatisfy men friendly to moderate Reform, they have not, in any fhape, expreffed a wish to obtain. Before the practical expediency of this meature then comes to be difcuffed, the practical neceflity of fuch a meafure must be established.

"In this proof, however, the Honourable and Learned Gentlemen have failed. I need not therefore go into the state of the country to refute the ftatements of the Honourable Gentlemen. Indeed I muft obferve that every thing urged upon this topic, was nothing more than affertion. The calamities and difficulties under which the country labours, the war with France, and inroads upon the conftitution, the profufion of public expentiture, were the topics upon which they infifted, and which they laid would have been avoided if Parliamentary Reform had formerly been adopted. I boldly contend, however, that in the origin of the war, in the efforts to an unparalleled extent, which the novelty of the conteft, and the nature of the Enemy, forced us to exert; that in what they call inroads, and which we contend were neceflary bulwarks for the defence of the Conftitution, the feelings of the People went uniformly along with the conduct of Parliament. In no time when the tide of profperity began to turn in favour of this country, when the Nation began to recover from the struggles and from the burdens of the American war, when year after year the fources of public wealth and individual happinefs were increasing and extending, had the functions of Parliament been more congenial to the feelings of the p.ople, than in the painful yet neceffary ftruggles to which we were obliged to fubmit in the prefent conteft. Gentlemen on the other fide may repeat till they think they have proved, that the voice of the Nation is against the proceedings of Government; but this is more a matter of opinion than of fact; and every man will naturally judge of the credit that ought to attach to fuch an affertion, from the circle of his own acquaintances, and his perfonal enquiries. I will undertake to fay, that at the prefent moment, amid all the difficulties and embarraffments unavoidably caused by the vigorous profecution of hoftilities, the system pursued by Parliament in fupporting the meafures of Government, is the fyftem of the people; and that Parliament never in a more ample degree poffeffed the confidence of the Nation than now. A general cry of hear! hear!) [Here Mr. Fox fhewed fome figns of diffent.] The Right Hon. Gentleman may be difpofed to controvert this opinion, but I am fure he cannot maintain the contrary with more fincerity, or more perfect conviction, than I advance what I now affert.

-"The Honourable Gentleman, (Mr. Grey), cannot certainly

No. 40.

with

with the fame degree of confiftency now contend, as he did at the end of the laft Seffion of Parliament, that Parliament has loft the confidence of the people. I know it was maintained that Parliament did not reprefent the great body of the nation, and that the refult of general elections give no ftriking character or impreffive feature of the fentiments of the people; but I defire it may also be recollected, whether there are not many leading inftances, and particular circumftances attendant on General Elections, that ftrongly exprefs the opinion entertained by the Conftituent Body, and taking up the confideration in that point of view, I infift, and am convinced, the pofition cannot be objected to, that the approbation given by those who had been Members of the laft Parliament, to the commencement and profecution of the war are ftrong and powerful recommendations in their favour at the late General Elections. I will for a moment, pursuing this argument, requeft the Houfe to take the Parliamentary Reprefentation as it had been ftated and recommended by the Honourable Gentleman. I would defire the Honourable Gentleman himself to look, for an inftant, to his own statement of the propofed additional reprefentation of the counties, and then candidly decide whether he can argue, that the fenfe of the people was not in a great degree to be collected at General Elections. It was fubmitted in that statement to extend the number of country Members from 92 to 113; the augmentation, therefore, did not confift of many; and did the Honourable Gentleman intend to except the 92 former Members by a general profcription, or would he pretend to say, that the fyftem of counties, as it ftood at prefent in point of reprefentation, went for nothing? Certainly he could not undertake to advance fuch an argument, and fo evidently inconfiftent with his own plan of Reform. If therefore, the 113 Members proposed by the Honourable Gentleman to reprefent the counties, expreffed the true fenfe of the people, it could not be denied, on the fame grounds, that the 92 who were elected by their constituents, were in a very confiderable proportion the organs of the public opinion. The arguments therefore adduced by the Honourable Gentleman are against his own declaration, that the fenfe of the people was not the fenfe of Parliament; and that fenfe has been fully manifefted in favour of the war at the general elections. My appeal to the proceedings in great and populous cities, as well as the city of London, in which the opinions of Gentlemen on the other fide of the Houfe, with refpect to Parliament not poffeffing the confidence of the people, are as ftrongly refuted, on a fair poll, by a vast majority of the Electors, as by the elections for the counties to which he has referred. It confequently appeared that the Honourable Gentleman

had

had no fpecific ground to proceed on; and that he totally failed in the foundation of his affertion, that Parliament did not enjoy the public confidence. The Learned Gentleman, in the flights of his eloquence, pufhed the argument farther than the Honourable Gentleman in his more guarded opening ventured to do. He difcovered that the country has loft all intereft in the deliberations of this House. On what ground this opinion is formed, I am at a lofs to conceive. On what great point has the public appeared indifferent to the decifions of this House? On the contrary, has not the public interest appeared most visible and extenfive? If any period could be felected at which the public looked with anxiety to Parliament to fettle their own opinion, for the judgment of a Parliament in which they have confidence must have a very confiderable effect in fixing the opinion of the country, the prefent would be pointed out as that very period.

"As to the general question, I cannot conceive any man fo ignorant of political fcience, or fo blind to the public intereft, as to confider great changes in the form of a Conftitution as matters of light moment, or to be adopted without maturely weighing both the neceflity and the confequences. To give up what it is not clear that moderate men have defired, to comply with the demands of those whofe appetite for change no conceffion can fatiate, whose hoftility to the Constitution no facrifice can appeafe, is a conduct which no policy or p. udence can justify or excufe. To tell us that because Liberty is good, we ought, by giving more nominal liberty to those who do not ask it, to gratify those who only defire an inlet to principles which inevitably lead to anarchy, and to the moft cruel, deteftable of all tyrannies, is an abfurdity which I am little apprehentive that the House will be difpofed to fanction. That prudence, which without the chance of fecuring any real benefit, would hazard fo much mischief, is a quality which few wife men will applaud, and few good men will employ.

"But it is faid, the new lights which the French Revolution has let in upon the world, are to lead to falutary improvements in Government. Good God! does the Learned Gentleman, who fees in our own Revolution fo many sources of evil, discover no evils which are likely to enfue from the borrowed lights which another Revolution affords, and the bright examples which it has furnished. From fuch lights, however, I hope we fhall ever protect this Conftitution, as against principles inconfiftent with any Government. The doctrines upon which it is founded are, as I have already faid, falfe, fhallow, and prefumptuous; more abfurd than the most peftilent theories that were ever engendered by the difordered imagination of man ; more hoftile to the real interefts of mankind, to national prof